January 18 | International Portal of Teacher Education

Jan. 18, 2011

Dear subscriber,

MOFET ITEC Portal Newsletter

Dear Subscriber,

We are delighted to be sending you the first issue of The MOFET ITEC Portal resource list of 2011.

The current bulletin presents some significant trends from the latest articles published in academic journals focusing on teacher education, pedagogy and instruction.

We would like to draw your attention to a new search option in ITEC Portal - Countries and Regions Index.

In cases where an article or study describe teachers, students, institutions, curricula or educational policy in a specific country or region, that item will also be tagged with the name of that country (along with the regular keywords).

The new index helps to obtain a picture of research trends in the field of teaching and teacher education over the last few years in a specific country.

Wishing you an interesting reading,

The MOFET ITEC Portal Team

January 18, 2011

International Portal of Teacher Education

Please note: a complete list of recent additions to the portal follows the Featured Items.

January 2011

Featured Items

Roles, Risks, and Benefits of Peer Mentoring Relationships in Higher Education

This article is an analysis of peer mentors, their interaction with students and instructors, the relationships that develop, and understanding the role of peer mentors in and out of the classroom. The mentor program was created in 1990 at a large public university in the western United States as a mentor leadership program under the premise of students helping students. In this study, the authors found that peer mentors identify with five roles of a peer mentor: connecting link, peer leader, learning coach, student advocate, and trusted friend. The authors conclude that two components were found in this study that offer avenues for future research. First, the amount of time in the program can affect responses. Second, gender makes a difference.

Comparison of Traditional Versus Alternative Preparation of Special Education Teachers

The purpose of this study was to investigate how alternative certification programs may affect special education teacher retention. The authors compared the University of Memphis's alternative Special Education Institute program to the university's traditional certification program. It was found that a larger percentage of the alternatively prepared teachers were employed at local school districts than the traditional program graduates . Furthermore, a larger percentage of African American students were employed by area school districts than were their White counterparts. The findings of this study support the use of alternative certification programs.

Professional Development 2.0: Transforming Teacher Education Pedagogy with 21st Century Tools

This article discusses the results of a professional development project offered to faculty of Arizona State University’s College of Teacher Education and Leadership. The goals of this project were two-fold: (1) to assist instructors with progressing technologies; and (2) to promote transformation of pedagogy. The authors found that through the use of social networking tools, instructors and students were able to provide more feedback to one another as well as communicate more efficiently and effectively. These findings may have important implications for teacher education programs that are seeking to prepare teachers to teach in 21st century classrooms.

Theorising Practice in Initial Teacher Education

This case study examines the perceptions of a group of trainees on the employment-based graduate teacher programme (GTP) towards the close of their initial teacher education. Seven trainees were selected to participate in the study. Data were collected by conducting a series of semi-structured interviews. Findings suggest that GTP trainees were able to identify ways in which 'theory' had positively influenced their practice. However, the authors claim that most workplace learning occurs on the job and that this masks an uncertain interplay between formal and less formal elements of how trainee teachers learn on the employment-based GTP route studied here.

One-to-One Computing in Teacher Education: Faculty Concerns and Implications for Teacher Educators

The purpose of this study is to examine initial concerns of faculty involved in a one-to-one laptop program in an elementary teacher credential program. This study took place at a large state public university in Southern California. Eight instructional faculty and three field supervision faculty participated in this study. Results indicate that, as a group, faculty participants had high-level awareness, management, and impact concerns, yet highest concerns for individual faculty varied. Data pointed to three major implications regarding technology-rich teacher education and faculty issues to be addressed for program success.

Participant-Directed Evaluation: Using Teachers’ Own Inquiries to Evaluate Professional Development in Technology Integration

In this article, the author considers of what, conceptually, the evaluation design models might productively look like in the particular context of professional development in technology integration. The author describes and examines three PD programmes in New Zealand that formed the basis of the reflective review of evaluation in technology PD all had a technology focus. The author concludes that by placing participant teachers at their centre, models of PD based on action research have inherent potential to closely link both teacher effects and student outcomes directly back to aspects of the PD experience to provide a rich evidence base about those effects and outcomes from the participants’ perspective.

Conceptions of Effective Mathematics Teaching within a Cultural Context: Perspectives of Teachers from China and the United States

This study examines Chinese and U.S. teachers’ beliefs concerning effective teaching within a cultural context. Nine Chinese teachers and 11 U.S. teachers were selected for the study.The findings from this study reveal that although sharing some common beliefs, the two groups of teachers think differently about both mathematics understanding and the features of effective teaching. These differences of teachers’ beliefs are discussed in a cultural context. Finally, the findings of this study have a number of implications for future studies that examine cross-cultural beliefs of effective teaching from teachers’ perspectives.